September 14, 1893] 



NA TURE 



163 



Mendota, about four miles from ihe University. These mounds 

 are of different shapes, that of the panther predominating, 

 though birds and conical mounds are found also. 



Section I (Economic Science and Statistics) had but few 

 papers to consider, of which that of Mr. Henry Farquhar, on 

 "Relations of Production and Price of Silver and Gold," in- 

 troduced the topic of most general interest just now. The 

 fallacy of attempting to maintain a silver standard of value was 

 very apparent from the paper and the ensuing discussion. Im- 

 provements in metallurijy reduce the cost and vastly increase 

 the production of silver, while that of gold remains ainiost 

 stationary, there being really hardly any metallurgy of gold. 



Wm. H. Hale. 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



NoTTiNGH.\M, September 13. 

 'X'HE meeting of the Association, which commences 

 -'■ to-day, will take place mainly in the University 

 College. In this building all the Sections, with the ex- 

 ception of the geographical, economical, and anthropo- 

 logical, will assemble. The Sections representing the 

 experimental sciences will be accommodated in lecture 

 theatres built and furnished for the express purpose of 

 illustrating and demonstrating these sciences. Every 

 convenience will therefore be afforded in the meeting 

 rooms for the proper illustration of the papers which 

 will be communicated. Further, the students' laboratories, 

 which are in immediate connection with these theatres, 

 will furnish most convenient exhibition rooms for the 

 illustrative apparatus, specimens, and diagrams during 

 the week of meeting, and when they are not required for 

 illustration in the sectional room. The College will thus 

 become the scientific headquarters during the meeting. 

 It will in addition furnish convenient sectional com- 

 mittee rooms, sectional secretaries' rooms, anthropometric 

 laboratory, ladies' boudoir, smoking-room, convenient 

 retiring rooms, and a large luncheon bufTet in the at- 

 tached public lending library. 



It is interesting to compare the facilities now offered 

 for the meeting with those afforded during the preceding 

 meeting in iS66 A temporary exhibition building then 

 stood on the College site, and was used for the conver- 

 sazione, but no suitable meeting rooms existed in the 

 town for housing Sections A, H, C, D, and G. It will 

 scarcely be necessary to inform those interested in ihe 

 advancement of science that the existence of the College | 

 is due to the public spirit of the inhabitants of Notiing- | 

 ham, who willingly voted public money to establish the •• 

 College, and who now mainly support it from the local I 

 rates. That such a bold experiment has met with the full 

 success which it deserved, members of the Association | 

 who visit the town will learn and see for themselves. | 

 They will find that the initial success is leading to further 

 success, and that outside support from the Government, 

 from the Drapers' Company, and from other sources, is 

 now being accorded with an ungrudging hand. It may be 

 said with truth that since the Association last met in 

 Nottingham, the town has become in a very important 

 sense a centre for the advancement of science, and fully 

 deserves all the encouragement and impetus which will 

 be given to its comparatively new scientific work and aims 

 by the visit of the Association. 



It may be added that the Sections which meet outside 

 the College are also accommodated in halls which were 

 non-existent at the previous meeting in Nottingham, and 

 that the evening meetings will take place in a large hall, 

 which is new in the same sense. This will give some 

 idea of the rapid progress which the town has made 

 during the last quarter of a century. 



Coming, as the Nottingham meeting does, between 

 meetings at the venerable University towns of Edinburgh 

 and Oxford, the status of the University College of the 

 town must necessarily suffer by comparison. But it will 



NO. t 246, VOL. 48] 



be found that Nottingham, like the other provincial towns 

 which have recently founded colleges in their midst, is by 

 no means altogether at a disadvantage as regards its 

 higher education by making a late start. In the matter of 

 buildings and equipments it has benefited by the experi- 

 ence of its predecessors ; and the absence of the fetters of 

 an ancient rdgime has left it free to adapt its curriculum 

 and methods to the needs of the present day. 



With respect to the prospective work of the meeting, 

 it may be stated that it promises to be fully up to the 

 average in importance and in interest. A general state- 

 ment of the papers to be brought forward, and of the 

 discussions in the different Sections, has appeared in 

 Nature from time to time, and it is unnecessary to 

 repeat the announcement of these in detail. It will be 

 sufficient to remind members that in Section A questions 

 of great interest and importance are put down for dis- 

 cussion ; that in Section B, M. Moissan will d monstrate 

 the preparation and properties of fluorine, a demonstra- 

 tion of absolutely unique interest, since this is the first 

 opportunity afforded in this country of seeing these 

 remarkable experiments. The President of the Section 

 C and his colleagues have been most energetic in securing 

 the attendance of distinguished foreign geologists, and 

 in procuring numerous papers of local geological interest, 

 in addition to discussions on points of general impor- 

 tance. In Section D, which will have the advantage of 

 securing the special interest and support of the President 

 of the Association, there will undoubtedly be good dis- 

 cussion of impoitant biological problems, not only by 

 Englishmen, but also by eminent continental biologists, 

 who are guests of the town. In Section E the travellers 

 are mustering in force, and will have their tales to tell of 

 widely distant parts of the earth's surface ; the photo- 

 graphs and paintings prepared in Antarctic regions will 

 be of special interest in this section. Economic problems 

 of the day are to be discussed in Section F. Section G 

 will be represented by many eminent engineers, both 

 English and foreign, and the experimental illustration of 

 many of the papers, rendered possible by the meeting 

 being held in a well-equipped engineering theatre, will 

 add interest to the proceedings. In Section H the paper 

 by Dr. Hans Hildebrand, and the description of the 

 Glastonbury marsh village by Mr. BuUeid, with the dis- 

 cussions which they will undoubtedly give rise to, would, 

 if they stood alone, constitute a tempting progr.imme to 

 anthropologists. 



The efforts put forth in the town itself to make the 

 gathering pleasant and successful will perhaps be best 

 appreciated by reference to the local programme and 

 maps now being issued to members. The townsmen 

 have vindicated their character for hospitality by privately 

 entertaining in their homes nearly 400 of their visitors. 

 An ample list of hotels and lodgings, with a suitable 

 map, has been issued for some weeks, some of the hotels 

 binding themselves to a special tariff to members who 

 engage their rooms through the local committee. The 

 garden parties, excursions, and entertainments will be 

 seen to have been so arranged as to leave no irksome 

 leisure to be filled in by those who have done their duty 

 to their Sections ; and the scheme for privately engaging 

 the Theatre Royal for the last Wednesday night will, it 

 is hoped, justify by its success its boldness and origin- 

 ality. 



With a programme of work of varied special and 

 general interest and importance ; with a universal desire 

 on the part of the townsmen to do everything in their 

 power to secure the comfort of their guests, and to afford 

 pleasure and recreation to them ; with the social element 

 of the scientific gathering secured by the promise of 

 attendance of men of science from all parts of our own 

 country and from abroad ; and, above all, with the pro- 

 mise of fine autumnal weather in a healthy, picturesque, 

 and accessible town with most interesting surroundings. 



